Why do overweight people get hungry?

This is not meant in any offensive way, but I was just wondering; what is the use of becoming hungry when you are overweight? Wasn't there this guy who fasted for like a a year swallowing only vitamins etc?
I never read an antire article on this guy but I thought he remained healthy the whole year. So why would an onese person become hungry?

This is not meant in any offensive way, but I was just wondering; what is the use of becoming hungry when you are overweight? Wasn't there this guy who fasted for like a a year swallowing only vitamins etc?
I never read an antire article on this guy but I thought he remained healthy the whole year. So why would an onese person become hungry?

That's a really valid question and the subject of much debate around here. I don't think anyone would mistake it for being rude/facetious.

Fat people get hungry despite being fat because the machinery of metabolism and satiety is broken. The exact mechanism is subject to debate, but most of us agree that there's an element of resistance (whether built-up or caused otherwise) to the hormones that regulate appetite and satiety. To name a few (and I'm not a biochem guy, so more educated persons can add to/correct the list), Leptin, Insulin, Glucagon, Ghrelin.

I always say the reason this works for weight loss is that it allows that machinery to function as it was designed. Also something that is hotly debated and disputed here from time to time.

i can't really explain any scientific reasons, other than to throw out grehlin, blood sugar, energy levels and all that, but i can tell you that when i was extremely obese, i was never actually hungry. it took playing around with longer fasts for me to realize what real hunger felt like, opposed to psychological hunger. eating and eating times tend to be automatic, usually starting from well before we can even remember it. people get used to eating the three meals, so the body will release grehlin giving us the sensation of hunger when those feeding times come around. but, i feel like that's more patterning than actual hunger. my body certainly had more to fuel itself, and though i still got hungry, it's not the physical call for food that i might experience today.

Primalrob raised a very good point - apart from all the physical metabolism issues, the psychological side of it is equally important. Some overweight people might never actually get properly hungry because they eat before the body signals any hunger. And by hungry I mean real, physical hunger, not emotional "I am peckish, let's have a look what's in the frigde" or "I want to treat my poor self" kind of "hunger". When I was overweight, I never went hungry - I just ate so much that body didn't get a chance. And a lot of snacks and treats (mostly sweets) were outside meals and made up the bulk of my calories. I planned for meals before, so that I would NEVER skipa a meal of "forget" about it Any discussion on hunger and obesity really needs to tackle both sides of it because I think majority overweight people start out having more "emitional" hunger, which lately is likely to cause all sorts of metabolic trouble.

I recommend you watch Gary Taubes' lecture; Mark has a link to it on the "resources" page. Taubes talks about the first law of thermodynamics (conservation of energy) which many of his detractors think he ignores. In fact, he *doesn't* ignore it at all. He simply points out that the variables in it are dependent, not independent, and that fat is metabolically active, not just a trash-can of spare calories.

In other words, you don't get fat because you eat too much; you eat too much BECAUSE you are fat.

If we follow this logic - and I do think it makes sense - your adipose tissue is metabolically active and, the more you have of it, the more it disregulates your system and pushes you to eat more. As Taubes and others would argue, the initial disregulation of this system is an endocrine (i.e., hormone) problem. The presence of excessive glycemic load -> insulin de-sensitivity -> fat accumulation -> eating more.

From age 3 - 15 i was constantly hungry because my mother only fed me when she felt like it not when i told her i was hungry. From that my body learned that food was not going to come when it asked for it and so my hunger signals turned off
from 15-35 I never got hungry. i didnt know what it felt like. and i ate on average 800 kcals daily with a ratio of 25%P 10%F and 65%C

at age 35 I started working with naturopaths to fix my fat. after one Nuerocranial Adjustment ( moving the sphenoid bone, not the massage stuff ppl think about, but the ballons in the nose that the army does for all head traumas) I started to feel hunger. it was crippling. and at that point i was 475lbs.

By the time i did my first round of HCG my hunger would leave me dizzy and sick to my stomach and it didnt matter what i ate or when etc.

HCG stopped my hunger and regulated some of my cycles, when i came off my first round i felt full and sated for the first time in my life. however i was appalled at the amount of food it took. i was eating about 5000k daily to get to full.

Then i started Primal and i noted that the type of food mattered. ( steak works chicken doesnt, chicken makes me hungry)
Then i went Ketogenic and i noted that additional glucose gives me the hungries.

looking back what i posit is this.

my HPA was seriously screwed. it is healing.
My liver was seriously screwed. it is healing.

Most people do just need to shut their fraking cake hole.

some dont.

the thing is, YOU can never tell. Once i decided that everyone is truly doing the best they can with what they have i was able to let go of judging them, i mean there but for the grace of god go I. and if i had a better childhood i woudl be a better person. if i had more money i woudl be a better person, if i had more knowledge, more resources, more stability, more love, i woudl be goddamnedfuckingawesome.

And fat people get hungry for the same reason that skinny people get hungry: evolution has made our bodies always crave more food to store up for times of famine. Since there aren't times of famine in the first world, we are still programmed to store extra body fat and we keep eating even when we are already fat. I find it funny no one brought up evolution but brought up garbage like taubes and his insulin.

Supposing you have your leptin and ghrelin and all of that in perfect order, there is still an advantage to getting hungry despite having fat stores because your body requires more than just calories. It uses vitamins and minerals in its everyday functioning and needs to replace damaged proteins, and to do that it needs new food coming in.